It has white lines all the way through it, then it settles down. Which is OK if you want to tape something that lasts 2 hours, because you can tape whatever comes before it for an hour and then by the time your programme has come on, it has settled down, but otherwise it's very inconvenient.
I've tried various tapes and it does it on each one.
Why is it doing this? Is the video just old and knackered?